ST. PAUL, Minn. - Concordia University's three seniors combined to score 43 points and grab 23 rebounds to help lift the Golden Bears (10-13, 7-12 NSIC) to an 85-67 win over Minnesota State University (7-16, 6-13) on Saturday night at Gangelhoff Center. The Golden Bears never trailed as all five starters reached double-figures in scoring. BOX SCORE
While the seniors were excellent on senior night, junior Isaiah Thomas (Fridley, Minn.) knocked down five three-pointers for the second-straight night and led all Golden Bears with 17 points, adding eight rebounds, three assists and a block.
Senior post Brent Barz (Johnston, Iowa) came out with a strong 12-point, 8-rebound first half and finished with a double-double for the second time this season, scoring 16 points with 12 rebounds along with two blocks. He shot 8-13 from the floor.
The Golden Bears came out motivated to keep their postseason chances alive against a Maverick team that was tied with them for ninth in the standings entering the evening. It's also a Maverick team coming off of an NCAA Final Four run just a year ago.
But Concordia imposed their will early with the game's first 13 points behind a pair of Thomas three-pointers before MSU finally scored four minutes into play.
The Mavericks would cut the Golden Bear lead to five, 23-18 with 8:32 left in the half when Thomas knocked down two more three-pointers to start a 20-8 explosion that blew the game open to a 17-point margin, 43-26 with under a minute to play in the half.
Minnesota State was able to knock down a three-pointer to cut the halftime lead to 43-29. Thomas hit all five of his three's in the first half while Concordia's defense limited MSU to 31.4% shooting and Concordia had a 25-18 edge on the glass.
The Mavericks came out strong in the second half with the first seven points in under two minutes of play to cut the margin down to seven, 43-36. But senior Kenny Olafeso (St. Paul, Minn.) converted on the fastbreak to snap MSU's 10-0 run.
The fastbreak was working for Concordia for much of the night as they dashed to a 21-6 edge in the open floor. K.Olafeso finished with 14 points on 7-9 shooting, eight rebounds and four assists.
From there, Concordia would push the lead back to 15 points although MSU got it back down to seven with under nine and a half minutes remaining. But Concordia defended the seven point lead again when junior guard Zach Towle (Maplewood, Minn.) buried a three-pointer to get it back to double-digits.
MSU would cut the lead back to single-digits just once more at 69-60 with under five minutes to play when the Golden Bears stepped on them one last time with a 16-2 run punctuated with a fastbreak dunk by senior Peter Olafeso (St. Paul, Minn.) with just over two minutes to play on the fastbreak off a steal.
P.Olafeso finished with 13 points for Concordia while freshman guard Terez Van Pelt (Osseo, Minn.) returned to the starting five with 11 points and six assists without committing a turnover in 31 minutes.
Concordia's bench supplemented the starting five by cashing in four three-pointers - two each by Towle and freshman Cole Olstad (Elgin, Minn.). Cole Olstad also added three rebounds and two assists while seeing 24 minutes of action.
As a team, Concordia shot 53.0% from the floor and made 10-22 from long range (45.5%). They held MSU to 37.1% shooting and 21.1% three-point shooting.
Concordia forced only three turnovers, but committed only nine as well while distributing the ball well with 21 assists.
After the win, they move into sole possession of ninth place and are just a game out of eighth place Northern State. They'll play on the road next weekend at U-Mary on Friday setting up a chance to topple NSU on their home floor on Saturday.
